Donald A. Dinero, PE, CPIM, has more than forty years of experience designing and implementing manufacturing methods and processes, and is the principal of The TWI Learning Partnership. He has addressed problems in all aspects of operations including, but not limited to, change management, personnel, labor unions, production systems, and production control.
His BS in mechanical engineering is from the University of Rochester and his MBA and MS (Career and Human Resource Development) are from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Don deliberately sought degrees in these areas so that he would have a balanced academic background in technology, business, and organization development. He received his Professional Engineering license (NYS) in 1983 and his Certification in Production and Inventory Control from APICS in 1986.
After over thirty years in positions of manufacturing and engineering management and as a direct contributor, Don entered the Lean consulting field by joining existing consulting firms. In 2002, he learned about TWI (Training Within Industry) and its reemergence in the U.S. After becoming developed as a TWI trainer in the three "J" courses, he began to study all the materials he could find on the subject. His studies and talks on TWI led to his writing the book Training Within Industry: The Foundation of Lean, published by Productivity Press, 2005. This book won a Shingo Prize for Research in 2006.
As he continued implementing Lean concepts, he began to realize that the Lean movement was hindered by its omission of TWI training. TWI offers fundamental skills training that helps to stabilize an organization, preparing it to seriously begin its Lean journey. In addition, it provides a foundation so that Lean principles are sustained. In order to assist in stabilizing an organization and, thus, assist in the acceptance of Lean, Don is concentrating his efforts on spreading the word of TWI. His consulting practice focuses solely on the TWI Programs. To that end, he delivers training in all three of the "J" programs and in Program Development. In keeping with the "multiplier effect" cited by the Training Within Industry Service, Don also offers Train the Trainer sessions for all four programs. This allows an organization's employees to independently deliver the training.
Don is not only a teacher of the TWI Programs, he is also a student of them and is continually learning about them through experiences with clients and reading. As a result, he continues to write papers about what he has learned, which appear on his website and in other publications. He also presents at the annual TWI Summit and at various other conferences around the world. More importantly, however, is that by having a deep understanding of TWI combined with forty years of industrial experience, he is well suited to successfully implementing these Programs into any organization.
Knowing that the TWI Programs consist of fundamental pedagogical principles, Don believes that these programs should be delivered in middle and high schools for the benefit of both teachers and students. Getting closer to this goal, Don has recently began working with the Be Like Coach organization (BeLikeCoach.com), which is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing good coaching techniques to America's coaches in order to benefit youth sports at all levels (recreation, school, club/elite).
As a student of TWI, Don continues to have a desire to learn and improve with respect to the TWI Programs. He welcomes all input and feedback and can be contacted at dadinero@TWILearningPartnership.com.
